1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a data managing device, data managing program embodied on a computer readable medium and data managing method, and more particularly to a data managing device, data managing program embodied on a computer readable medium and data managing method for managing data stored in a particular device to be controlled.
2. Description of the Related Art
Remote control of composite machines (referred to as MFPs (Multi Function Peripherals) hereinafter), which combine printing, scanning, and facsimile functions, is now possible as these machine connected to computers. MFPs are capable of storing various types of data, such as user data for managing users to restrict users who operate the MFP, destination data listing destinations of facsimile and e-mails, and the like. Users may enter/edit such data using the control panel of the MFP. In addition, users can import the data stored in the MFP to a computer, edit it, and then rewrites the data in the MFP with the edited data by remotely controlling the MFP from the computer.
Briefly, there are two methods for editing data stored in the MFP using computers. In a first method, the computer combines modified and unmodified data and sends it as a bundle of data to the MFP which, in turn, rewrites the existing data that is already stored therein with the received bundle of data. The sending/receiving procedure may only be executed once at the sending side and the receiving side, respectively, in the first method, because the data is sent/received in a bundle. In this case, the MFP executes the same procedure regardless of whether the amount of data to be sent is changed, and no significant difference has been found in time for the MFP to process two bundles of data having different data amount. A suitable communication protocol for the first method is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol), for example.
In a second method, the computer sends a command to modify each record of the edited part of the data that is changed from the pre-editing version of the data, and the MFP updates the existing data stored therein each record after another in response to the received command. Thus, the MFP only rewrites the records of the edited part of the data, which differs from the pre-editing version of the data, in the second method, so that the rewriting time of each rewriting job is shorter than that of the first method. However, if the number of records of the changed part is increased, the accompanying rewriting time will be longer and the total time to rewrite all records of the changed part may be longer than the first method. A SORP (Simple Object Access Protocol), for example, is a suitable communication protocol for the second method.
In editing the data stored in the MFP, the user must choose a program to update the data in accordance with either the first or second method and order the computer to execute the program. It has been difficult, however, for the user to determine prior to editing which program might deserve choosing.
It is noted that Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H6-35513 discloses the technique to divide data before sending it when a large amount of data should be sent, while sending all data when a small amount of data should be sent.